Verde House
by Fantasy Boudicca
Summary: A story I wrote for my friend's birthday. Ruby Blake's life is horrible. She's bullied, her mum's depressed and her dad's who-knows-where. So when she stumbles into Verde House, where books come alive, to say she has no idea what's going on will be an understatement. Rated T 'cause I'm paranoid. Read and review!
1. Prologue

"Loser!" Josephine slammed her locker shut on my skirt. Out of reflex I tried to bolt, but my skirt trapped me and I fell.

Josephine cackled and sauntered off in her Gucci boots, leaving me sprawled on the ground.

I was so numbed to it all, I didn't even cry. I just got up and worked my skirt free of the locker, grabbed my stuff from my locker, and headed home.

As usual, Mum was sulking. Dad was who-knows-where, he'd left us to find work apparently, because with the recession he'd lost his job. I dumped my bag beside my bed and collapsed into bed.

I pulled out my grey backpack that I was slowly filling with things I would need to run away, to start a new life in New York. To get away from everyone.

I sighed and put it away, then went downstairs to cook dinner.


	2. Chapter 1

I ran into the janitor's closet, the only place where I might be able to hide from Josephine and her minions.

I doubled over as sobs wracked my body. I wasn't rich, I didn't wear designer clothes, and I did well in class. So? Why did it mean that I was always bullied?

"I swear, Tony, you're going to sprain your arm one of these days, trying to swing _that,_" a girl's voice said.

"You've been saying that since we were tiny, and it hasn't happened yet," a boy's voice replied.

"It has. Twice."

Someone flung the door open and, momentarily blinded by the light, I stumbled... and crashed into the girl.

"What the Hades?!" the Spanish-looking girl yelled, falling in a heap on the floor, barely missing the large German Shepherd by her feet, who barked in surprise.

"Jules! You alright?" the boy, Tony I guessed, asked, helping the girl, Jules presumably, to her feet. Their dog started barking at me, until the girl silenced the dog with a hand gesture.

I was about to help her up and apologize when something stopped me. The boy was holding a sword that was _longer_ than he was tall. These kids acted like this was entirely normal.

Jules struggled to her feet. "What's your name?"

"Ruby Blake," I said. "Who are you? Where am I? What happened?" I asked, not expecting them to know either.

"She's Julia Verde, I'm Tony Verde. The dog's Delta, Julia's service dog," the boy said. "You're in Verde House."

"As for what happened..." Julia reached behind me and pulled out a book. I was so dazed by what had just happened that I didn't notice the phrase 'service dog' until later.

On the cover it read 'Ruby'.

Tony flipped through the book. "You got out of your book."

"What?" I asked. Were these kids saying I was a character in a book?

"You got out of your book," Julia repeated. "Characters from books often come out here, even those based on real people or in biographies, actual people. Like, last week we had Harry Potter here. Usually most go back to their books after they've accomplished something here, or learn something. A few stay."

"Oh," I said. "So..."

"You're the protagonist in this book," Tony said, handing me the book. "Read it."

It didn't occur to me then that I was listening to a boy that can't have been more than ten years old, while I was fourteen.

I read the book, and sure enough, it matched up to my life exactly. It was as if someone had been watching me my whole life and recorded it in there.

"Come on. Out of the weapons store," Julia said, pulling my wrist.

"Huh? Weapons store?" I asked, looking around me.

I screamed as I came face-to-face with a huge scimitar. That sword was huge!

I scrambled out, not looking where I was going, and knocked Julia over. Again.

"Hey! Watch it! You try getting up with a fake leg!" Julia said, irritated. Delta barked, as if to emphasize the point.

"You have a fake leg?!" I felt guilty enough before, but knocking over a girl younger than me who's missing a leg just made me feel like a complete jerk.

Julia pulled up the right leg of her baggy jeans, revealing a shiny plastic prosthetic that ended just above her knee. "Yeah. It's alright. You were surprised."

"Tony, show her around. I'll get the guest room ready," Julia said, already limping up a flight of stairs, Delta at her heel.

Tony let out a sigh. "Welcome to Verde House. We Verdes have been staying here since before America even gained independence, so the place is huge. It's a mansion, in fact, with grounds and stuff," he said. "Giant pain in the butt to clean, so we've always had at least two branches of the family here at any one time to help out. No helpers, because we're afraid they'll gab and then everyone knows about Verde House."

"That's my cousin Xavier. He's fifteen," he said, nodding at a teenage boy playing the guitar in the living room. "His younger sister Alicia - she's fourteen and looks like a supermodel - is probably out riding. Aunt Olivia's probably riding too, and Uncle D - you'll know when you see him, he looks like Mohammad Ali - is at work. It's the school holidays, so we kids are pretty much left to our own devices. Mum and Dad are on a business trip."

He showed me around the mansion and its grounds. First was the living room, kitchen, dining rooms (yes, _rooms_), and TV room (former second living room) on the ground floor, then the enormous library, three formal sitting rooms, the children's study and the offices in the western wing. After that was the bedrooms (twenty-five of them) in the eastern wing, each with an en-suite bathroom and a balcony, connected by corridors around a small central airwell-courtyard that served as a training yard for weapons (When you have every other type of sword, bow, crossbow and gun on the planet, you tend to want to use them.). The attic had Julia's, a gymnast's, practice equipment, like mats, bars, chalk etc.

Then it was on to the grounds surrounding Verde House. "The stables are far, far away from the house because of the smell, but we're allowed to ride everywhere on the grounds except near the lake. The lake is right next to the house, so we don't have a pool," Tony said, pointing at the lake. Beside it was a giant tree. "That tree's said to go back to when we first came here. Supposedly Anthony Nathaniel Verde the First planted that thing. I'm the Twelfth."

My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw the lake. It was bigger than four Olympic swimming pools put together! "Oh, man. That is _huge_," I said.

Tony grinned. "Most of us kids try taking on the Challenge of the Lake. The challenge is to swim around the whole lake without taking a single break or slowing down. We're only allowed to take on the challenge once we turn thirteen, and I'm ten, so I have another three years before I can get it done," he said. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "But I've already done it. Twice."

"Nice," I said. I could barely swim a lap of the local pool.

"Julia did it six months ago, on her thirteenth birthday. Just in time; a month later..."

"ANTHONY NATHANIEL VERDE!" Julia's voice yelled from Verde House. "GET YOUR BUTT IN HERE!"

"Oh, crap. She must've found the stash!" Tony said.

"What stash?" I asked, trying to keep up with Tony as he sprinted to Verde House.

He gave me a sheepish look. "My stash of things I took from her room."

I laughed. "Oh, you are in so much trouble."

**A/N: What do you think? This started out as a fandom, but after 10 plot drafts, it became an original story. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!**

**P.S. Yeah, I know 'Verde' means 'Green' in Spanish, so the title actually reads 'Green House', but that's the original surname of my characters, so I don't really care.**


	3. Chapter 2

As is turned out, Tony was in trouble because he'd forgotten to clean up the table in the library he'd used for painting, and the wood was now covered in green and blue paint. He'd been painting a lake scene. On top of that, the table was an antique that went back to Victorian times. Even Delta knew not to claw it or anything.

"Good luck cleaning it up before Aunt Olivia finds out," Julia scowled, tossing a rag at him and setting to work with a bucket of soapy water.

Tony cringed and joined his sister.

Julia looked up after a few minutes. "It'll just take us around ten minutes. Feel free to check out the library. There are like three thousand books, just watch out for those on the top shelves - some are the family archives, and literally go back to Stuart times, like back in the early sixteen hundreds."

I was hoping she was joking, but the serious look in her eyes killed that hope.

I checked a sigh and grabbed a random book off the shelf. It was bound in blue linen, fairly old.

I flipped through it, but all there was was a bunch of names, names of books, dates, some random sentences, and some stars next to it.

"Oh. That's this generation's visitor log. It's every visitor we've had since we were old enough to write, what book or play or whatever they're from, the date they arrived, the date they left, why we think they came, and the craziness level," Tony said, looking up from his scrubbing.

"Our record stands at having Robin Hood, Maid Marian, King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden, one Aztec from just before the conquistadors, one Ancient Chinese official from the Tang Dynasty, Genghis Khan, and who else but dear old Glenstorm the Centaur from the Chronicles of Narnia, on top of having Sekhmet, Egyptian lioness war goddess, two ninja, and a samurai at the same time. During exam period," Julia piped up. "You can see that time got eleven out of ten stars."

"Should've gotten infinity! We had to use all the rooms, _and _ask two more branches of the family here to help!" Tony added, scrubbing the last of the paint off the table. "Done!"

Julia and Tony flopped back into the chairs, their hands covered in paint.

Julia gave Tony a Look. "If you leave your paints around again, I _will _make you lick it off."

I laughed.

For the next few days, I stayed at Verde House, exploring the grounds. I met Alicia, who really did look like a supermodel, and learned to ride.

"I'm heading to the stables, want to come with?" Julia asked me, about a week after I came to Verde House.

"I can't ride," I said.

Julia shrugged. "You can learn."

With that, she walked out the glass doors in the direction of the stables. Delta, as usual, was right on her heels.

It took us five minutes to walk to the stables. That's how big the Verde Estate was.

"We've a dozen horses here," Julia said, making conversation. "Mine's named Pucelle, after La Pucelle d'Orleans, also known as Joan of Arc. Tony's is named Quester. At first he was named Eques, the Latin word for horse, but after a while it degenerated to Quester. My dad's one is named Marc, like Marc Anthony. Mum named hers Cleo, like Cleopatra. Uncle D named his Alex, after Alexander the Great, Aunt Olivia's is named Penny, Alicia's is named Gloria, and Xavier's is named Nemo. To be fair, he was like seven then."

"That's eight horses. Who are the other four?" I asked, while Julia caught her breath.

"Candy, the sweetest of them; Topaz; Psy, like the Korean rapper-he's the youngest, just a few months old; and Fatso," Julia said. For some reason she seemed uneasy when mentioning Fatso.

"Cool," I said.

We reached the stables.

Julia showed me how to mount the horse, how to make the horse turn right or left and stop, and how to make the horse start walking and how to make the horse go faster. She had me ride Candy because she was the easiest to handle and the gentlest.

Once I was fairly stable on Candy, Julia started talking about the various horses and their personalities. Candy was the sweetest and calmest, Quester the most adventurous, Cleo the biggest thief (they estimated she had stolen over fifty treats within two months of being weaned; they weren't sure), Alex the strongest, Fatso the fattest since the day he was born, Topaz the prettiest, Marc the wildest, and apparently, Pucelle was the fastest of all the horses.

"You can see she was bred for speed, not strength. We figured out early on that I'd stay pretty light my whole life, so I got the one with the lightest build. See? Long legs, small body," Julia said, indicating Pucelle. "Built for speed."

"Oh," I said. I really had no idea what she was talking about.

"Candy was bred more for endurance, though we're pretty sure she got her dad's speed. You ought to see her jump!"

"Can I?" I asked.

Julia nodded and rode over to some fences. "I think these were used to fence off vegetable gardens. Now we just use them to challenge each other," Julia explained.

I got off Candy and held Pucelle's bridle while Julia rode Candy towards the fence.

With a small yell from Julia Candy cleared the barrier easily and U-turned back to us at a canter.

"Nice, eh?" Julia asked, grinning.

I nodded and clapped my hands, making sure to loop my hand through Pucelle's reins first.

We rode for a while more, then we put our horses back in the stables and headed back to Verde House.

For some reason, when we came to a large bare patch of earth, Julia looked uneasy, like she was about to puke, and kept far away from it.

"What up?" I asked. "Why're you so nervous about that little bit of land?" I asked.

Julia looked down at her prosthetic leg. What? Is it too embarrassing to tell? Did … Oh.

The bare patch of land had something to do with how she lost her leg. Tony had mentioned something had happened six months ago, a month after she completed the Challenge of the Lake.

"Never mind," I said. "Forget I said that."

The girl next to me didn't seem to hear that. She only continued limping back to Verde House.

"Xavier, up for a duel?" Julia called as soon as we stepped inside the mansion.

Xavier grinned, already heading to the weapons store. "Finally someone asks! Dibs on the sabre!" **A.N. A sabre is a large curved sword. Just imagine a normal sword with a curved blade.**

"Khopesh!" Julia said, running as best as she could to the training yard. "Meet you in the Yard!"** A.N. A khopesh is an Egyptian sword. The blade is shaped a bit like a distorted question mark.**

Within a minute they were dueling, the clangs and scrapes from their swords echoing through the near-empty building.


	4. Chapter 3

"Today I take on the Challenge of the Lake!" Tony announced as we went to said lake.

Xavier snorted. "Don't be stupid. You aren't allowed to do it until you're thirteen. Three more birthdays to go."

"I got it done in secret when I was eleven, blockhead," Alicia said, stretching while walking.

"True," Xavier admitted.

"Are we going to talk or swim?! Hurry up!" Julia called, already spreading the picnic blanket on the grass. She was wearing track pants, since she didn't want to swim.

We raced to the lake.

We swam and splashed each other. Delta took a running leap into the water and in one splash, drenched everyone within two meters of her, Julia included, who wasn't even in the water! She was on the bank, reading a book.

"Oi, why didn't you lot wait?!" someone called from behind me.

I turned to find two boys and a girl jogging towards us. One of the boys and the girl were obviously siblings, with the same blonde hair and light brown eyes, quite short, the last boy must have been a friend of theirs, because he was a redhead and unlike them, he was tall for his age, and with different features.

Julia looked over at them and waved. "Citius, Fortius, we've a new guest!"

"Hello," the girl said.

"Hi," the boys chorused.

Julia turned to me. "Ruby, these are my friends Cole Jones, Annabeth Lawrence, and Jason Lawrence. We used to be the F.O.C., the Future Olympians Committee. Now it's just them. We call each other by the Olympic motto, like since Annabeth and Jason learn judo, they're Fortius, meaning stronger, since Cole's a sprinter, he's Citius, meaning faster, and I used to be a gymnast, so I was Altius, meaning higher."

"Yo, Cole, what up man?" Xavier called from around the middle of the lake.

"Same as always," Cole called back.

"I thought Verde House was like top-secret or something?" I asked.

"Yeah it is, but they're the kids of or descendants of characters who chose to stay here. Half the town's filled with them," Tony explained. "They know, so we don't mind them coming over."

"Like for example, my dad's William Edward Lawrence from _The Castle in the Attic _by Elizabeth Winthrop," Annabeth said, pulling off her shirt and Bermudas to reveal a one-piece swimsuit. "All the way back in 1985."

"My great - grandparents are from a short story written back just before World War Two," Cole said.

"Oh," I said.

"Cannonball!" Jason shouted, taking a running leap into the lake.

"Wait up!" Annabeth yelled, diving into the lake.

"Look sharp! More guests!" Alicia snapped suddenly. "Toss me my towel!"

Julia grabbed a towel and tossed it to Alicia, and another five to the rest of us.

Just in time, as barely a moment later there were two flashes of light and a Medieval knight in full armor, mounted on a warhorse, appeared, followed by a young man wearing what I recognized as late Tudor-era clothes. Delta immediately started barking her lungs out, though she didn't leave Julia's side.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding," Xavier muttered.

"You know the Tudor guy?" I asked.

"Romeo Montague," he whispered. "This guy's on the cover of my Shakespeare book."

Cole, the only one dry and still with his shirt on (except for Julia, who was trying to get to her feet), walked forward. "Good day, sirs."

Alicia, Annabeth, Jason, Xavier, Tony and I hastily clambered out of the lake, hiding behind the ancient oak tree beside the lake.

"Where are we, lad? Who are you?" the knight asked, lifting his visor up.

"My name is Cole Jones. This is Verde House," Cole said.

"Delta, quiet," Julia said, silencing the German Shepherd immediately.

Xavier had by now changed into dry clothes, and strode out from behind the tree. "Thanks, Cole. My name's Xavier Verde, sirs. Verde House is the family home. What are your names?"

"Romeo Montague," the Tudor guy said, and Julia gave me an "I knew it," look.

"Sir Arthur de Anton, lad," the knight said.

The rest of us had by now dried off. "Sis, usual arrangement?" Xavier called to us.

"Got it," Alicia called back.

It turned out the usual arrangement was to have Alicia stable the horses, if there were any, and for Julia and Tony to arrange everything back at Verde House, while Xavier, and the F.O.C. if they were there, to show them around and explain. Guests already staying there could tag along.

I tagged along with Julia and Tony to help them get the rooms ready.

"Annabeth's dad was a gymnast. He introduced me to gymnastics," Julia said, making conversation.

"Oh," I said. I actually knew nothing about gymnastics. "How'd Annabeth and Jason end up going into judo, then?"

"They decided they didn't like gymnastics," Tony said. "They stumbled across a judo class, tried it out, and were hooked. Just like that."

"Mr. Lawrence acts as my coach and spotter a lot of times, even now," Julia said. "A spotter's job is basically just to guide a bit and act as a judge."

"Wait, even with your…" I trailed off, meaning Julia's missing leg, "he still coaches you?"

Julia snorted. "Heck yeah. He actually made me practice _more _after the accident, because I had to make up for time lost in hospital. The only thing I'm excused from is landing on my feet, and fumbling a bit because of the bad weight."

Tony grinned. "He said, and I quote, "If your standard drops any more than _that_, I will come over and personally kick your butt back into shape, leg or no leg." Made us laugh for five minutes straight."

"Got the message across," Julia quipped. A.N. I don't know what quipped means exactly, I just thought it was a cool speech word. "I still do gymnastics at least once a week, just before taking a shower."

"So, any other skills? Tony, everyone in the family seems to have one specialized skill. Julia's is gymnastics, Xavier's is playing guitar, so yours and Alicia's is what?" I asked.

"Alicia's, as far as we can tell, is being able to learn entire languages in weeks. Mine, I like painting," Tony said, as we walked into the first room.

"You can see his work all over the house. See that one on the wall?" Julia asked, pointing at a painting of a garden hanging on the wall opposite the bed. "Oil on canvas. Did that last year."

"Anyway," Tony said, changing the pillow covers, "Alicia is somehow able to pick up languages quite easily. We had a samurai over for two weeks once; now she can hold a conversation in Japanese."

"Oh, and don't forget that time we had Lady Bast over," Julia said. Turning to me she said, "We always add 'Lord' in front of male deities and 'Lady' in front of female deities. It saves us angry gods and goddesses. So Lady Bast is actually Bast, Egyptian cat goddess."

"Alicia managed to learn Ancient Egyptian within one month. She was translating all our archives into Egyptian within the week," Tony said. He shrugged. "She got bored."

We finally cleaned out the first room and its adjoining bathroom and balcony, then headed to the second room.

In the middle of making the bed, I asked Julia, "What is it like? Having dozens of different characters from books popping in and out of Verde House?"

The question had been nagging at me since I got there.

Julia hesitated a while. "It's… interesting. I haven't known anything else, so I can't say much about it."

"We do get to learn some pretty cool skills though," Tony said. "Like jiujutsu, how to be a ninja, and how to make and throw shuriken. I've got a dozen in my room right now, and," he paused to reach over his head, between his shoulder blades, "two on my back. Useful at times; you will be surprised how often villains get out of their books. Al Capone, Blackbeard, Captain Hook, just to name a few."

Of course. I should have figured that they had actually hurt people before; it only made sense that with that number of storybook characters coming in and out of Verde House, at least a few had to have threatened them.

"Okay, we've got everything cleaned, let's go," Julia said.

As we left the room, she said, "I have two shuriken between my shoulder blades, and a small kunai throwing knife in my jeans."

"What?" I asked in disbelief. Tony, he was a boy, so if he said he carried a gun in his back pocket I wouldn't have been surprised. But Julia? Missing one leg, big-sister Julia?

"A kunai throwing knife is a Japanese style throwing knife," she explained, oblivious. She dug it out of her jeans pocket, removing the sheath. A sharp black diamond-shaped blade with a handle attached to the shorter end, with a ring at the top of the handle. The handle was wrapped in leather, and the whole thing looked like it came right out of an episode of _Naruto_.

She put the sheath back on and stuffed it back in her pocket. "We are all armed, mostly because of this thing that happened about a year ago."

We reached the bottom of the stairs and went to the living room. "I can sum that up in two words: Drunk ninja."

Xavier whistled, joining us in the living room. "I still don't know whether to call that one cool or scary."

"Scary," Julia and Tony chorused.


	5. Chapter 4

"Duel me," Julia said. "I'll prove that I can wield a sword as well as any man."

Why was I not surprised when Julia challenged Romeo to a duel after she caught him staring during her sword practice?

Romeo hesitated, looking dubious. "You are a maiden."

Xavier snorted, wiping off his sweat from his own practice. "Think that's ever stopped her? I'm willing to bet your average 'maiden' doesn't have leather-hard callouses on her hands. And I'm fairly sure most aren't trained by samurai. And the Ancient Egyptian god of warfare. Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot, ninja."

Romeo shrugged and drew his sword.

"Start!" Xavier said.

It took exactly five minutes for Julia to disarm Romeo. Well, she was using a khopesh, which was specifically designed to disarm your opponent. On top of that, Romeo wasn't used to fighting with someone who wielded an Ancient Egyptian sword like a pro.

"That irritating hook is the main reason why we usually ban Jules from using the khopesh during duels," Xavier said, as Romeo picked up his sword. "She somehow manages to hook even curved blades like sabres and katanas, and the next thing you know your sword's embedded somewhere and you have a khopesh at your throat."

Tony, Alicia and Sir Arthur came into the yard then for sword practice. Tony was holding the same sword I'd seen him use on my first day in Verde House, Sir Arthur was using gasp, a smaller sword, and Alicia was holding a katana.

Xavier whistled to Tony as he walked in. "Thought the last time you used the zweihander; you pulled your arm?" **A.N. A zweihander is a German sword, literally meaning two-hander. It can measure up to 180 cm in length (to put that into perspective, one foot is about 30 cm, the blade measures up to 150 cm, and weighs up to 3kg or 6.6 lb. For obvious reasons, it's meant to be used in both hands, and there was often a second grip on the blade so it could be used like a short spear. Those can slice through two whole pigs in one slice, I kid you not. There's a video on YouTube. Back to the story!**

"No! I just got tired," Tony protested.

Alicia and Julia looked at each other, then burst out laughing. "Yeah, right!" Alicia gasped.

"Then… why… were… you… screaming like a girl?" Julia managed between laughs.

"I remember Mum thought you'd dropped a sword on your foot or something!" Xavier smirked. "I ran to find you clutching your arm and had to get a huge bag of ice."

"Come on, give it up," Alicia said. "_Xavier_ can just about use that thing, and he's a third larger and stronger than you."

Tony huffed and stomped to the weapons store, put the zweihander in, and pulled out a rapier, the kind used in fencing matches. "Happy now?" he demanded. I laughed.

Julia, still trying to get her laughter under control, just nodded.

It was only then that I noticed that Sir Arthur and Romeo were nearly bent double in their attempt not to laugh at the four Verde's antics.

Xavier swore that Verde House was Drama Central. After the events of one day about a week after Romeo and Sir Arthur's arrival, I could see why.

"Where am I, maid?"

"You are in Verde House. I am Alicia Verde. Please, who are you?"

"Juliet Capulet."

I nearly dropped the book I was reading. I had stayed up late in my room reading 'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins, and since I left the door ajar, I could hear Alicia talking outside the door.

"Alicia! Please, it's two in the morning!" Julia yawned.

I got out of bed and opened the door.

Julia, wearing a dressing gown that went down to her feet, embroidered with vines, was yawning and rubbing her eyes. I'd figured out early on that the thirteen-year-old was _really_ 'out of it' if she didn't get enough sleep. A tank could pass in front of her and she wouldn't even notice.

Alicia, wearing a similar dressing gown, was trying to explain to Juliet about Verde House, but it being two in the morning and Alicia not being much of a night owl either, was making a hash of it.

"Alicia! Julia!" Olivia's voice said. "Let me."

She was also wearing a dressing gown. "Alicia, Julia, go to sleep. I'll do this. Same goes for you, Ruby."

I gratefully went back into my room.

As I fell asleep, a thought popped into my mind: I sensed that Juliet was a spoilt brat. I'd been around Josephine long enough to sense whenever someone was spoiled.

As it turned out, I was right. Juliet had a truly _epic_ temper, and poor Romeo was still completely smitten with her. Sir Arthur was civil enough to her, but he kept as far away from her as possible, I noticed.

One day, I told Julia and Alicia my thoughts after another of Juliet's temper tantrums. Juliet had demanded to ride Pucelle, even though Julia didn't even let anyone groom Pucelle but herself. In the end Juliet got her wish, but promptly fell off Pucelle. Julia said, "I agree. She's so spoiled! She forced us to let her ride Pucelle even after we told her she couldn't! Then she had the nerve to start whining about how Pucelle was too rough for her and crap. Pucelle is _my _horse."

Alicia just yawned. "Believe me, this is absolutely _nothing _compared to when we had who was that, Invidia, Roman goddess of jealousy over. At least Juliet is plain spoiled, not spoiled _and _perpetually jealous. All she did was ride Pucelle."

"DO YOU NOT HEAR YOURSELF?! SHE WANTED TO RIDE PUCELLE!" Julia nearly shouted. I winced.

Alicia softened a bit. "She didn't know, Jules. I mean, none of the guests here except Ruby know about your… condition. All they see is a little girl that limps when she walks."

"It is not a _condition._ It's just a fake leg." Julia sighed. "But still… I mean, couldn't Juliet see I didn't want her to ride Pucelle? She was so helpful after the accident."

It took me a while to figure out the double meaning in the exchange. By then the two Verde girls had gone back into the mansion. As far as I could tell, after the accident Julia had been afraid of something, and Pucelle had helped her in one way or another. Because of that Julia was extremely attached to Pucelle.

"Hey, Ruby! I need a favor!" Tony jogged up to me, holding his sketchbook in his left hand. His right hand held a box of drawing pencils and watercolors.

"Sure, what is it?" I asked.

He suddenly looked embarrassed. "?" he blurted out. It sounded Spanish.

"Huh? Can you please say it slower?" I asked, confused.

"I need you to model for a sketch I'm doing as a present for Jules. You're the closest in size to her, and in any case Alicia's got her hands full with keeping Juliet's temper down," Tony said more slowly, in English, though his Spanish accent was thicker than usual. "Sorry, I swap to Spanish a lot if I'm nervous. Anyway, I just need you to… You know what? I'll show you."

He scampered up to the attic, me in tow. He sat down at the bottom of Julia's gymnastics equipment. "You just have to sit down like this," he explained, getting up. "I just need to do a rough sketch, then I can finish it and paint it."

"Alright," I said, plopping down in the same spot Tony had just vacated.

"Thanks," he said, sitting a bit away from me to do the sketch.

He chattered to me while he was sketching, to keep me from getting bored.

"Some artists prefer taking photographs instead of having a model pose, but I think it's just a waste of camera film if you can have a model anyway," he said. "Besides, I'd have to ask Jules to borrow her camera, since she has the only one I know how to actually use. Everything else is like crazy complicated."

"Alright. Got it," he said after about fifteen minutes. "You can come look."

I got up and sat next to him to watch while he erased the sketch and did the final drawing. The result was a portrait of Julia wearing a long gypsy skirt and blouse sitting at the bottom of her gymnastics equipment. He then got to work painting the sketch.

I have to say, that boy was a pretty good artist. The painting looked almost like a photograph.


	6. Chapter 5

Julia thought that she'd be able to hide her disability as long as she wore long pants and sneakers all the time. She was a bit of a paradox. She didn't want people to know, but she wanted those who did to be frank about it.

Anyway, one day the Verde kids were stuck inside the house after the adults had left for work, and it had been raining cats and dogs outside since right after the adults left. Olivia had gone to visit a friend in the next state, which would keep her out of the house the whole day. Juliet had just had yet _another_ temper tantrum, and she and Romeo were somewhere in Verde House. Everyone else, bar Sir Arthur, who was up in the library, was holed up in the living room.

Tony yawned. "Bored?" Alicia asked, yawning.

"Bored," Tony, Julia and Xavier said in unison.

"We'd be stupid to head out in this weather," Tony said.

"Heck, even Delts looks bored," Julia said, nodding at Delta.

The large German Shepherd was lying on her back on the floor with the most bored look I've ever seen on a dog.

The four of them were silent for a while. Julia and Tony were sprawled on the floor like throw rugs, Xavier lying on his back next to Julia with his legs propped against the wall, Alicia curled up on the couch. I was seeing how many times I could toss a coin in the air and catch it.

"Hm… Hey, what about a game of Capture the Flag? Girls against boys," Xavier suggested.

"Ninja style," Julia said, grinning as she sat up. "Ruby, you in?"

"Okay," I said. "So what do we use for flags?"

"Dunno," Xavier and Alicia chorused.

"Well, we can't use clothes, or anything too personal, that's for sure. We'll get bawled out by Sir Arthur and Romeo if we boys get caught. On top of that, Juliet will likely never let us hear the end of it," Tony said. "You girls will probably get away with it."

"Um… What about our recorders?" Julia suggested, after a pause. "Alicia and mine have bits of nail polish on them, and yours don't. Also they're different designs."

"Alright. So we have to have the other's recorders for at least a minute, agreed?" Xavier asked.

"Agreed. Weapons are allowed, the whole of Verde House is the playing ground," Alicia said.

"No maiming, but you can be 'killed' by weapons, then you have to sit out the game until someone saves you. No ranged weapons, obviously. The flag has to be clearly displayed, and only one person can guard it at any one time," Julia added.

"Wait. YOU KIDS USE _WEAPONS_?!" I nearly shouted. "Count me out!"

Tony shrugged. "Yeah. We don't actually hurt each other. At worst it's a couple of nicks and some bruises."

"Alright. So it's Jules and me on the red team, and Tony and Xavier on the blue team. No accepting help from the guests. Ruby's the ref," Alicia said. "Dibs on the katana."

"Khopesh." Julia raised her hand.

"Sabre," Xavier piped up. "And Tony, if I catch you trying to use the zweihander again, I will lock up the big weapons and make sure you're only handling fencing foils for the next month."

Tony sighed. "Fine. I'll use the rapier."

They went to the weapons store to grab their swords.

Capture the Flag with weapons was interesting to say the least. I just kept out of the way and watched them. I was the referee, but I didn't have much to do anyway.

Each of them, I noticed, had an individual fighting style. Tony preferred to take an enemy head-on, charging into the fight. Julia had a strong preference for sneak attacks, more likely to surprise and 'kill' an opponent ninja-style from behind than sword fight. Alicia liked to play defense until her opponent tired out, conserving her energy, then go into a full-blown attack the moment her opponent got too tired to defend himself or herself well. Xavier had a habit of ambushing people, jumping out and 'killing' them before they could even react.

Julia had one advantage and disadvantage. Her advantage was that as a gymnast, she was pretty agile and could balance well, and could do all sorts of tricks to avoid getting hit by the sword. Her ninja teacher had seen this and given her priority training over everyone else, so that girl could literally just backflip over you if she had to. Her disadvantage was that since she was missing one leg from just above the knee and was using a fake leg she'd only just learned to use, she couldn't walk or run particularly fast, and her landings were a bit off, so she tended to end up on her butt. On top of that, the rainy day had made what was left of her right leg sore, so she had taken aspirin to relieve the pain.

"Gah! Stop!" Julia yelped suddenly, nearly falling onto the banister around the central airwell. "Can't do this much longer!"

"TRUCE!" I shouted.

"TRUCE!" all four Verde kids shouted back.

"You able to walk if I help you?" I asked Julia.

She grit her teeth and nodded. "Yeah. My room."

I helped her limp up to her room, and on the way, we passed Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo, being the nice guy he is, asked us if we needed any help. Me, being the idiot that I am, said that Julia could hardly walk because of the damp. And of course the man was bright enough to put two and two together (Julia's limp, her habit of long, baggy jeans and sneakers in contrast to the rest of us wearing khakis and flip-flops, and also the fact that it's usually either the old or amputees whose limbs get affected by the damp) and figure out that Julia likely had a fake leg.

Cue Juliet being sorry for being such a jerk, and then a giant flash of light, and both disappear.

"What just happened?" I asked, my brain struggling to process everything.

"Juliet learned pity and how to be sorry. Odds are what she had to learn," Julia said, her voice completely flat, as though she was saying "It rained today."

"Oh."


	7. Chapter 6

"Tartarus no," Xavier muttered, as there was a blinding flash of light and a tall, slim, blonde woman suddenly stood in the library. She was wearing scarlet robes, and in her right hand was a wand. "Narcissa Malfoy."

Once Narcissa was settled in her room ("Ought to be rooms," she'd said, with a snooty look that made Tony mutter something about stuck-up bimbos.), Julia pulled me into the study room, locked the door and for some reason, waved her hand at it.

"Ruby. Do you know how to handle a weapon?" she asked.

"No." Why would I have to?

Julia sighed, then went over to one of the shelves and pulled one of the books.

The whole blasted shelf slid to one side and rotated slowly around, like in those superhero movies. Instead of opening to a secret room, though, on the back of the shelf… Was it even legal to own that many weapons?!

The again, the Verdes did own a semi-automatic gun, and Julia had said that everybody in that house knew how to use it…

Julia reached up, pulled a folding fan from its holder near the top of the back of the shelf/armory, and handed it to me. "Open it."

I obeyed. It looked pretty normal, covered in white cloth with a pattern embroidered on it in grey thread, and with black lace covering the edge on both sides.

"The edge has a flexible metal ribbon hidden by the lace. Not the best bladed weapon, but it's the easiest to conceal and the best suited for this situation," Julia said, sitting on one of the tables. "You use it by slashing the thing starting from one edge. It helps get the lace out of the way."

I nearly dropped the fan. _Why was Julia giving me a weapon when she knew I had no training?! Was she insane?_

"I have a bad feeling about Narcissa. Dark witch, from what I remember of the books, and as a general rule I trust Harry Potter wizards half as far as I can throw them," Julia explained. "That fan you're holding is one of the few weapons we own that can deflect magic. You see, Xavier and Tony are weak magicians, but they figured out how to make some of our weapons magic-proof, including one of the rapiers, Xavier's sabre, Alicia's katana and my khopesh."

"Wait, Xavier and Tony can use magic?!" _That_ was news.

Julia held out her right hand, and after a second or two, a bright light materialized, floating about an inch above her palm. "Most of us Verdes can. Live on a plot of magic land for four hundred years, and it gets into you a little. It normally only makes us healthier and better at picking up skills than most, but for the boys, some end up being able to cast spells and put up shields. My own magic lets me do that and soundproof a room for a bit, and Alicia's magic shows itself in making her able to learn entire languages in weeks. Unfortunately, my gymnastics is all sheer hard work."

She slid off the table. "Trouble is, we can voluntarily surrender our magic to someone else and make them stronger. My uncle, aunt, and parents surrendered their magic to Xavier and Tony, so they're stronger magicians. Gods only know why, but for some reason just about every magic user in every book knows about this particular trait. Then again, they all seem to know about Verde House."

"What does this have to with me?" I could get the Verde kids walking around armed because of this, but I didn't have any magic.

Julia hesitated. "Guests… While they stay here, they also have some magic. You can also surrender it. That's why I'm giving you that fan. If you're attacked you can use it to defend yourself. Believe me, a good chunk of evil magic users have no concept of the whole 'don't attack your hosts or their guests' thing. You get attacked, do not hesitate to use it. If a story character is killed here, he or she just goes back into their story. Xavier's telling the same thing to Sir Arthur as we speak."

I have to give Narcissa credit. She chose the one day all the adults were out to strike. She knew it was only the Verde kids, Sir Arthur and I that had magic, and planned accordingly.

All of us except Narcissa were gathered in the library, and Julia and Delta had gone downstairs to get drinks.

An ear-piercing scream made us all drop whatever we were doing.

"Jules!" Xavier tore out the library, Alicia and Tony right on his heels, before I could even react. Sir Arthur barreled out the door a second later. The screams continued.

It took me a second to come back to my senses, grab my fan, and race down to wherever the screams were coming from.

What I saw I will never forget.

Sir Arthur was on his hands and knees, shaking and sobbing. Xavier was on his knees, his head in his hands and his shoulders trembling. Alicia was moaning, curled up into a fetal position, her head down. Tony was sobbing, curled on his side, his eyes tightly shut.

But it was Julia's reaction that truly scared me.

Hot-tempered, stubborn Julia was screaming her lungs out, clutching at what remained of her right leg. Delta was trying to get to her but some kind of invisible barrier held her back.

And Narcissa was standing not five feet away from this mess, laughing cruelly. She was responsible.

Before I could even open my fan she pointed her wand at me and shouted, "_Vivere rursuso!"_

Whatever it was meant to do, it didn't work. I heard Josephine and her cronies jeering at me, but that was it. Frankly I didn't give a crap about Josephine and Co. anymore. I'd met freaking storybook characters. One does not simply care about teenage bullies after that.

Narcissa seemed to realize the spell didn't affect me. _"Crucio!"_

I deflected that spell with my fan and charged her, tackling her to the ground. I scrambled for her wand and snapped it, snapped my fan shut and smacked her 'round the face with it. It seemed like a good idea.

Narcissa suddenly screamed, and there was a blinding flash of gold light. I was lying on my stomach, partially on top of a piece of paper that now had a kunai knife stuck through it, for about half a second, and I suddenly stood in a giant white space, in front of two doorways. On the left was to the janitor's closet, the right to Verde House.

I realized now was time for me to choose. To stay in Verde House, or leave?

Verde House was definitely the more attractive option. No Josephine. Life with story characters. I could start over, and Julia had mentioned that the adult story characters usually took in the younger ones as foster children.

But… Mum. She needed me. I couldn't just leave her.

I walked to the janitor's closet.

Suddenly I was back in the clothes I'd been wearing that day, schoolbag and all.

"Here she is!" one of Josephine's minions hissed on the other side of the door.

I didn't hesitate before flinging it open, sending Josephine and Co. tumbling in in a mass of designer clothes and Elizabeth Arden makeup.

"Missing me?" I asked sarcastically.

Not waiting for their answer I stepped over them and made my way down the hall.

When I got home Mum was cradling her phone, in tears. She threw it onto the couch and sucker-hugged me the moment I walked through the door. "Ruby! Your father just called. He's found a job! We're moving to Washington tomorrow! I've already settled things with your school. Come on, I'll help you pack."

The next day I was digging around in my schoolbag on the way to Washington when I came across something unexpected: A broken wand and a note.

_Hey Ruby, Julia here._

_Alicia and I convinced Xavier and Tony to help us magic the wand and this note into your schoolbag once you got into your mum's car. The wand counts as spoils of war, so you get to keep it._

_The boys, Alicia and Delta say hi and Tony says he wishes we could send you a zweihander, but we've only got one and he's too attached to it. What can I say? The kid's obsessed._

_Have fun in Washington!_

- _Julia Mary Verde, Alicia Alexandrina Verde, Xavier William Verde, and Anthony Nathaniel Verde_

_P.S. If you're wondering, the senders have to write their full names to send paper back for some reason, if not we'd just write Julia, Alicia, Xavier and Tony._

I kept having random giggle fits all the way to Washington.


End file.
